The cast and creators of the Hindi language comedy-drama film Kathal spoke about the film at the trailer launch event recently. The film is set to release on Netflix on 19 May 2023.
The launch was attended by cast members Sanya Malhotra, Rajpal Yadav, and Anant V Joshi alongside debutant director Yashowardhan Mishra and writer Ashok Mishra. Also in attendance were producers of the film Ekta Kapoor, Achin Jain, and Guneet Monga.
Kathal follows the story of a young policewoman (Sanya Malhotra) who is tasked with solving the strange case of two prized jackfruits that were stolen from a local politician’s garden in order to prove that she deserves her position.
The film was shot in Madhya Pradesh and when asked about playing someone from that state, Sanya Malhotra had this to say: “Of course, it was different and difficult, and I would like to say, Neha helped me a lot to get the dialect right. Before that, I was lost.
“For the first two days, I was scared as I was not able to find the tone of the character. I felt there was a need for more hard work. After much help, I was finally able to catch the dialect.”
Yashowardhan Mishra was asked about the experience of being in the director’s chair for the first time, to which he replied: “Oh, it feels absolutely amazing, I think I am very privileged to call Kathal my first film at such a prestigious platform, Netflix. A story of this country will be taken to 190 other countries, I feel very privileged.
“And to get such fantastic producers, Sikhya Entertainment, Guneet Monga and Achin Jain, the visionaries that they are, it was a complete pleasure, and of course, Balaji, and Ekta’s guidance.
“I couldn’t have even imagined that these brilliant actors will bring the amazing characters we wrote to life and portray them so beautifully and with so much fun.”
His father, Ashok Mishra who wrote the script along with Yashowardhan, added this about Kathal: “We try and look at the film critics of our country who always demand a film that’s meant for the family, a film that should have entertainment, a film that’s about the nation.
“So we both wanted to make a film like this because all film critics demand it. They say this film has entertainment but no message, it doesn’t reflect the country but the foreign land. So this was our effort, we thought that we should make such a film and all the films that I’ve written in the past are all based in our nation.
“Second, we want — the dialects of our country, they’re very powerful, way more than Hindi. That’s why any film that’s made — Ganga Jamuna — like Dangal, if it was made in Hindi how boring it would’ve been…it’s made in Haryanvi.
“So we’re also experimenting with dialects of our country, which include Bundelkhandi, Baghelkhandi, Rajasthani…so this how we kept working together, and fortunately our tuning is really great. We do fight sometimes, for a dialogue, for a line, or for a scene, but it resolves one way or another.”
Rajpal Yadav was asked whether he picks roles with the idea of having a memorable impact on audiences and he replied: “It’s my hobby to work on such characters of the society that can hook me in. We’re actors and we live in a metro city, if I wasn’t an actor I’d have been doing something to express myself in one way or another, because I don’t know anything else.
“I’m expressing myself through cinema, but if it wasn’t for this artform, I’d have been engaging in expression through your (journalism) medium on some platform or another.
“I consider it my fortune. I want to play that common man from all corners of our society, so that it can make people laugh but also show people just how much effort he has to make to earn a daily livelihood.”
Here’s a look at the trailer of Kathal:
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